Outdoor Truths

Are you obsessed over something? Has something gained your attention in such a way that you have made some drastic changes in order to accommodate that matter? Deer hunters do this all the time. I was just reliving the past season with a friend. He was telling me about a place where he hunted that was for bow hunters only. One evening, just before dark, he saw what he called the buck of a lifetime, and it was only 60 yards from his stand. And even though he could not get a shot at it, it caused him to almost ignore all the other bucks that came his way; and there were plenty. By the time his few days of hunting were over, he had passed up some really big bucks because none of them were the one he had seen just a few days earlier. In the end, the cost was coming home empty-handed, all because he had become obsessed with one prize so valuable that every other prize paled in comparison. He is not alone in this obsession. I know of other hunters who have marked one particular buck as their goal and have waited for 2 or 3 years in order to get it. And I know of some who waited just as long only to find out their prize was now their neighbor's trophy. Some may not understand this obsession. Some do. Everyone ought to. In recalling these stories, I am reminded of the Biblical story of the man who found a valuable pearl. The author says when he discovered it, he sold everything he owned and bought it. No diversification. No hedging his investment. No waiting until more favorable times. But selling it all - pushing it all in for this one pearl of great price. What was the Lord comparing this most valuable pearl to? The kingdom of heaven. What is the kingdom of heaven? Let's just say it is the totality of God in our lives now and the greatness of heaven in the future. What the Lord desires is this; that there would come a time in our lives when we finally understand the most valuable thing in our life is simply Him. And in fully understanding this, we would willfully, gladly, and excitingly be willing to give it all up in order to experience, without distraction, the worth and surpassing greatness of that relationship.

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